Question: how did your family react to you choice of job

Vinita Marwaha Madil answered on 22 Oct 2021:

My background is British Asian (Indian), so although my parents were supportive of my interest in space and science, there was some pressure to study a traditional subject for a girl and consider an acceptable job for a girl in the South Asian culture. I worked as a dental nurse on the weekends whilst studying at sixth form as my parents would have liked me to study dentistry. Working in a dental practice helped my parents and I realize that although I enjoyed some aspects of the role and the medical side, being a dentist wasn’t for me.
The medical training was useful later in my career – based at the European Space Agency as a contractor I worked on some of the medical aspects of preparing a launch campaign (where the team go to the launch site in Kazakhstan to prepare the European Robotic Arm for launch) for the mission I worked on and I’ve also worked in the European Space Agency’s Space Medicine Office, so having some background in this has helped. But ultimately it helped me to realise that we need to address the lack of representation of minority women in STEM especially, ensuring that their stories are visible and able to inspire and support both the future career decisions that young women make and provide their parents and peers with examples of successful careers. Through Rocket Women, we’re aiming to ensure that these stories of diverse women in STEM globally are visible.